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Author: Cavendishdev

Antidepressant Prescriptions Soar…

Psychotherapy and/or Prescription Medicines..?

Talking Therapy or Prescriptions: The number of antidepressant prescriptions in the UK has risen to an incredible 50 million per year. The rise in prescribing medication for depression can be seen as a strong indicator that people are now recognising -without stigma – the need for help with their depression. It’s also becoming evident that people see that medication for depression works. For GP’s, medication is a relatively cheap way of offering help to a patient struggling with depression or anxiety.

While undoubtedly antidepressants work and serve a good purpose for many people, it is questionable whether they are always the best form of treatment for depression. Antidepressants are very good at quickly alleviating overwhelming feelings, but the medication does not tackle the underlying causes of the psychological difficulty. It is, perhaps, easy for people to become reliant on medication for depression and stay medicated for years, with out ever really tackling the underlying causes of the depression. Dependence on antidepressants is now commonplace – where the fear of reducing the dose and stopping the medication all together, becomes problematic.

Talking Therapy

At the Cavendish Psychotherapy Practice, we believe that medication can be very useful when treating patients for depression – particularly when function is severely impaired -so when a patient struggles to get out of bed, or becomes very isolated or has suicidal thoughts – but we recommend that patients on antidepressants are also in weekly psychotherapy or counselling. Psychotherapy and counselling helps people, suffering with depression, understand and resolve the underlying causes of the difficulty. Greater awareness and understanding of the causes of depression help the individual move through the difficulty. At the Cavendish Psychotherapy Practice it is our aim to support patients through their depression and help them to become self reliant and free from the need to medicate their depression.